JP - Cmdr. Geoffrey Teller & Lt. Robin Hopper: The Slipstream Cantina (Part 2)
Robin Hopper
Geoff brought the bottle back with him and refilled both of their mugs with the shimmering azure liquid. Its scent had evolved into a strange miasma of plasma leak and bad decisions.
Hopper: Thanks. ::Less cautious sip:: Yeah, I think this stuff gets less awful the more you drink it. I think we should be concerned. Should we tell somebody? ::Waving a hand:: Never mind. You were saying?
Teller: I’ve got some family back in the Sol system. My sister, her wife and their kids live in Tycho City and my Dad, when he’s not romancing his way around the quadrant, lives near them to be close to the grandkids. ::He took a deep drink, largely finishing the second cup in one series of painful gulps:: They…didn’t know what to think when I vanished. I…I need to go talk to them…make things…right somehow.
Hopper: Yikes. ::Making a face at her own blunt reaction:: I mean, I feel for you. That doesn’t sound like a fun conversation. At least you get the chance to see them again. They’ll probably be relieved to have you back.
Geoff glanced down into his cup and pushed it away.
Teller: Apologies, I must be getting sentimental in my old age. You didn’t come here to listen to me crying in my cups.
Hopper: ::Chuckling:: No, I came here hoping to take a bottle back to my room with something strong enough to make the stars flying past the window interesting… ::Shrugging:: So this is a considerable improvement. ::Squinting:: When’s your birthday?
Teller: Stardate 237101.01…makes celebrating new years with me a dangerous occasion.
Robin thought for a second, doing a quick calculation in her head. She looked back at Geoff, with a dubious scoff.
Hopper: “Old age???” If you account for the elastic variance in temporal quantum mechanics – which you should – that makes you one year my junior. At least, physically. ::Cheeky smirk:: So now you’ve offended me.
Geoff genuinely thought about it for the first time since getting back. Everyone was now a year older than he was, relatively. He refilled his mug and went to take another drink before offering a jaunty toast.
Teller: That hadn’t actually occurred to me, Robin. So, thanks. Ugh..I hate time travel. ::He rubbed the bridge of his nose in tired frustration:: Whatever the number says, I feel old. Er. Older.
Hopper: No. The Universe is old. I’m still young and that means, like it or not, so are you. But – that also means we still have time to patch things up.
She took a deep drink, polishing off the glass of coolant before shaking her head and gasping.
Hopper: Oh! Oh, it got bad again. I think my immunity wore off.
For the first time since she had sat, Teller heard a small catch in his drinking partner's voice. He may not have caught it normally but the woman had been so remarkably upbeat since walking in that even the smallest downturn became noticeable. For a moment, Geoff was reminded of his friend Wil Ukinix and the rare times his mood had grown dark. He leaned back with his noxious cup and spoke in quieter tones.
Teller: We do, do we? Sounds like I’m not the only officer here with more than one thing on their itinerary. You want to talk about it or would you rather keep killing braincells?
Robin bit her lip. oO #$&% Oo She looked at the roughly-5/8ths-empty bottle of reactor juice and sighed.
Hopper: I… didn’t mean to say that. This stuff is dangerous.
Grabbing the bottle, she poured equal measures of the liquid into each of their cups, draining it of its contents. She looked around for a suitable place to dispose of it then, recalling the cabinet was already filled with empty bottles, just put it back inside and awkwardly shut the door.
Hopper: Hey, if we kill enough braincells, neither of us will remember this conversation anyways, right? This stuff has to be about 200, 300 proof?
Teller: Well, I’m not exactly a bartender. Was actually a barista for a while…but that’s a whole other story. Whatever it is, it goes no further than me. Besides, with my number of head injuries? Who’s going to believe me?
Robin liked to consider herself an ‘open book’ – at least, within reason. She didn’t know Geoff… and on one hand, that made sharing her inner regrets feel like an overstep. But on the other, it made it feel easier. Besides, any friend of Wil’s couldn’t be that judgmental, given how frequently the Commander seemed to put his foot in his mouth.
Hopper: I’ll spare you the long annoying history that led up to it, but suffice to say my sister and I didn’t part ways on the greatest of terms… I may have called her a %#@$. But – to be fair – she had just shoved an entire cone’s worth of ice cream onto my forehead. On the day of my Academy graduation.
Teller let out a small, slow whistle.
Teller: That does sound like…a lot. What happened after?
Hopper: Nothing. I left. Shipped out the next day on a Deep Space assignment. She went to University. That was… ::lifting her cup:: …two and a half years ago.
She took a drink and winced as the bottle’s last dregs – which she could only assume were, in fact, hydrochloric acid – reached her throat. It was the sort of burn that made you forget your other pains. At least for a while.
Hopper: I won’t be sticking around all the way to the Alpha Quadrant… but the Tyrellian Sector is within standard boosted comms range. So, if she’s willing, I can talk with her. ::Rolling her eyes:: Try to talk with her. The wait to hear back from a letter in the Delta Quadrant is a real pain in the butt.
Geoff knew only too well how difficult it could be when you were cut off from the people that mattered to you. He smiled across the table.
Teller: It’ll be alright, you know. Family fights…but family’s there for you when it matters. Tell her you’re sorry. Tell her she’s a jerk. Tell her you expect to throw several frozen desserts at her the next chance you get. And then try to laugh about it all.
Hopper: ::Small smile:: Yeah. We’ve had fights before, and we’ve never let them really keep us apart. Not forever. So, there’s some hope. ::Looking to Teller, a half-smile forming:: For both of us. We didn’t pull you out of that time prison and put the universe back to rights for nothing!
Geoff snorted at her sudden upswing and painfully drew the last drops of his drink into his sinuses. The burning brought tears to his eyes.
Teller: This Koala damned stuff is going to be the death of me but I’m almost sad we’re out of it.
He glanced back towards the mediocre bar cabinet and tried to remember what else littered its few shelves. Shaking his head he dismissed the idea of going for another round. He doubted anything would mix particularly well with the ‘reactor coolant’ anyway.
Hopper: Now what?
Geoff leaned back and thought about it for a moment, his exhaustion and incipient drunkenness blending together to form a solid defense against cogent thinking.
Teller: I’ll be honest, I want to tinker. Build something. Take something apart. Need to do something with my hands when I get like this or I’ll never sleep. ::Geoff snorted to himself at the memory:: Some say I do my best work when drunk. Mostly Wil. Definitely not Captain Rahman.
She rolled her eyes. Why was it so easy to imagine the Commander saying that?
Hopper: I certainly hope you weren’t drunk when you worked on that arm…
Geoff’s face pinched together in a fair approximation of critical thought.
Teller: I mean, that story has probably gotten exaggerated over the years. We didn’t exactly…steal the arm. More like…borrowed. Without asking. In the middle of the night.
Hopper: ::Confused:: What? I’m referring to the arm you worked on with Commander MacKenzie… What are you talking about?
Teller blushed, his mind beginning to swim pleasantly.
Teller: Oh right right…well, same arm, different circumstances. Doc and I even co-authored a paper on it half a lifetime ago. I think it got her a few more initials after her name. Wait, so you weren’t asking about the borrowed arm and the angry one armed klingon girlfriend?
Robin made a face.
Hopper: No. I actually hadn’t heard that one... ::Eying him suspiciously, subconsciously pulling her leg closer:: Should I be worried?
She made a mental note to grill Ukinix about the incident next time she had the chance.
Geoff snorted a laugh.
Teller: Not unless you plan to borrow someones appendages without asking first. Especially a Klingon. ::In his mind, Geoff could still hear G’var slamming against the door like a gravametric ram:: Ah, simpler times.
Hopper: Well. Since we have the time — and now I’m scared to fall asleep — what other whacky stories do you have about the ‘good old days,’ gramps?
She leaned back, grateful to have someone to talk to. Someone she expected might actually have three weeks worth of stories to tell…
Geoff snorted again but found himself relaxing in a way he hadn’t in a while. Somehow telling the stories was allowing him to revisit those moments in his life and the small joys he’d found there. His earliest friendships in Starfleet. His first days as a Chief Engineer. The Veritas and all who made it a home for him.
Teller: I’ll trade you a story for a story, then! Let’s see...Wil ever talk about the time we went hunting for pirate gold? Adventure, orphans, treachery and even a holographic parrot.
Hopper: No! That sounds incredible… Have you heard of the Neanthelites of Exarian III? They have a very unfortunate appendage in a very public place. ::Waving her hand:: You go first!
The two laughed late into the night as Geoff dove into the story of the Bolian Rose with gusto and shared details he hadn’t passed along since the official Starfleet incident report some years earlier. By the time they were done sharing their tales and headed back to their staterooms, Geoff felt a weight shifting off his soul and he settled into a deep, dreamless sleep.
As she turned off the lights in her quarters — the fire locked tight against possible limb thieves — Robin found herself actually looking forward to the following day aboard the transport. Suddenly, the galaxy felt a little less lonely.
END
Commander Geoffrey Teller
Reactor Coolant Inspection Specialist
V239509GT0
Lieutenant Robin Hopper
Chief ‘Blooze’ Taste Tester
V239806K11